Daughter of the Thief
by CynderFanForever
Summary: Kayla Cooper is the daughter of Sly and Carmelita Cooper, who are now married. Although her father has given up thievery for the most part, she hasn't, and has already made her own Cooper Gang. When she and her gang are forced into an adventure, they must face an advesary who cares for nothing, and whose true identity hits close to home for one of Kayla's gang.


**Prologue: Daughter of the Thief**

Kayla knew she wasn't supposed to be there, but she hadn't been able to resist coming. Her parents had told her no, but it was now or never, she believed.

Her four friends stood behind her: Danielle, a black wolf who had been brought up only by her mother and whose father had gone missing; Manny, a grizzly bear who had been loyal to her ever since they'd become friends; Randy, a tiger who everyone in school loved; and James, an iguana who never seemed to be understood, although Kayla and her other friends understood him the best of all.

Kayla was the next generation of the Cooper line, who had all been master thieves, although now the heists were never as big as her father had once taken. But the one difference between her and that line of Coopers was the fact that she was a fox, not a raccoon.

This was because of her mother, once fittingly named Carmelita Fox, marrying her father, Sly Cooper. Her mother had attempted many times to put her father in jail because of his criminal ways, although they had grown past it and decided to start a relationship and later get married.

That had resulted in Kayla's birth, causing the Cooper line to go from being only raccoons, but also foxes. The only difference between her and her mother was that she hadn't gotten Carmelita's Hispanic accent. But now Kayla was a thief like her father, unbeknownst to her parents. She hoped they never would find out.

"Hey guys, I know where we need to go!" Kayla announced to her gang. "Look over there at that jewelry store! That diamond in the window seems pretty promising, hm?"

"I don't know about this," James said. "It's kind of weird, stealing."

"Hey, we only steal from the rich, not from the poor. What we do steal, though, we give most of the time to the poor," Kayla explained. "Understand?"

"Yeah, but-"

"But nothing," Danielle said. "Kayla's right. Let's get down there, steal it, and then we can go home without our parents even knowing we were here. Got that?"

Kayla smiled, happy that Danielle was always on her side. That was why they'd been best friends since preschool.

Another difference between Kayla and her gang and her father's old gang was that she and her friends were not being hunted by the police, as the police had no idea who they were, and blamed it all on other criminals who fit the description of what had happened.

Kayla took out her cane. Unlike her father, it had not been passed down, but it had been made for her, and she used it very much. The words that her father had said after she'd received the cane were, "Never use this in public unless truly necessary. And never bring it to school."

Although the last warning had been meant as a joke, Kayla knew he was serious about it all, and was careful with where she brought the cane and what she used it for.

"Ready for this, guys?" Kayla asked her gang. "We need to be on our feet. Danielle, can you make sure to hide in the shadows and disable to security cameras for us?"

"Definitely. Anything to help the gang out," she said.

"What should I do?" Randy asked. But before Kayla could answer, she heard a deafening screech cut through the air.

"What in the heck was that?" Manny exclaimed. He looked around for the source of it, but noticed nothing.

Kayla whirled around and ran from that rooftop to the other, jumping across one opening that seemed to be nearly three feet wide. She looked down into the alley there and saw a large purple vulture staring down at a young woman.

"Don't you dare!" the woman yelled out. "I know what you and that demonic creature are doing! You're trying to-"

"Shut it, you old hag!" growled the vulture in a gruff. "If anyone hears you, then our whole plan will be nothing but a bust! Do you want that to happen, or should I just go ahead and..."

"Hey buddy, mind if I join in?" Kayla asked from up on the rooftop. The vulture looked up at her, startled. "I heard something about a plan and I wondered if I could ask you what this plan is?"

"NO!" the vulture exclaimed. "You will not! I will never!"

Kayla jumped down into the alley, she and her cane ready for battle.

The vulture growled and ran at her, although she dodged, causing him to run head-on into a wall. Dazed but conscious, he attempted an attack with his wing, but then Danielle came out of nowhere and slammed him back into the wall. Manny then came up and kicked him, followed by a much harder kick from Randy, and finally a shattering slap from James, knocking him into a pile of trash.

A small pocket-knife fell from inside his jacket. The vulture had closed his eyes due to the pain, and when he opened them, he noticed the five teenagers standing in front of him.

Scared, he suddenly opened his wings and took off, leaving the gang to watch him go. But they were happy to see him get scared of them.

"Oh thank you so much!" the woman said. She was a small Siamese cat, seemingly only a little older than Kayla and her friends. "He was crazy, saying I was once a friend of his! As if!"

"Are you alright, mam?" Randy asked.

"Yes, and once more, thank you!" She ran off without another word to the friends.

"Well, that was a strange meeting," Danielle said after a few seconds of silence. "I don't think I want to steal that jewel anymore, Kayla. What do you think?"

"I agree," Kayla said. "I'm going home. But first, what I want to have done is an analysis on this little knife." She picked it up off the ground. "We might be able to learn where it comes from."

"I can do that," James said. "What should we do once we learn what or where it's from?"

"We'll do that when it's been analyzed finally, okay?" Kayla smiled. "But for right now, let's get home. I'm lucky my parents don't check on me while I'm asleep anymore. I asked my mom, and she said that it's because I'm getting too old for it."

"Thank God," Danielle said.

"Alright then. Well, I don't know what to do about you guys, but Danielle is sleeping over at my house while her mom's gone, so we're going back to my place. You guys may not have as much stealth as she and I do, but try to be careful when getting back inside. We don't want our families to learn of what we've been doing out here every night," Kayla explained.

She and Danielle left the boys there to go home on their own.

"What do you think will happen when that badge is analyzed?" Danielle asked.

"Who knows? Maybe we'll be able to do a very big heist for once! Our only problem is our parents. They wouldn't allow us at all," Kayla said.

"It turns out that tomorrow is the eighteenth year since my dad left," Danielle said. "It's usually a day where my mom mourns, but I've decided that the best thing to do is spend it with my best girl. What do you say? After sleeping in, we plan something new or go somewhere?"

"Definitely!"


End file.
